Floral Wreath and Piñata
by Yukitarina
Summary: He teaches her, she teaches him. After all, they'll always need each other.


**A/N: Hi there, this is my first Trinity Blood fanfic. I've just watched and read it and astonished with the characters and their outfits xD I hope you enjoy it ^^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Trinity Blood characters.**

**-00-**

**Floral Wreath and Piñata**

Yukitarina

**-00-**

"Such a calm moment, isn't it?" said Father Nightroad, smiled, his eyes shone warmly behind his glasses. Esther watched his long silver hair and its black ribbon swaying as he looked up to the clear sky, seemed imagining something interesting. Such a shiny noon at Istvan it was, with some greeneries and shimmering sun. Two figures sat peacefully in the midst of the lea, watching some clouds, feeling the wind. This was a rare day happened inside a rare quietness, without the interruption of vampires or Rozenkreuz.

"Ah," Esther said, now with enthusiasm. "What about practicing the thing you did last month?"

"Last month?"

"Floral wreath," her eyes narrowed as she put her hands on her hip. "Last month you messed up a lot, Father—you made a pile of trash instead of floral wreath we were about to send to Vatican."

"Really?" Abel laughed nervously, clasping his hands, recalling the time when he ruined the forget-me-nots, carnation, hollies, and a bunch of wires. "Sowwy," he took a deep breath as his shoulders fell down. "I didn't mean to."

"I'll teach you once more," she smiled. "But may I ask for something in return?"

"In return? If you mean I have to fix those cracked room I stay in…"

"I won't ask you to fix it," she laughed, made Abel amazed on the way her sparkling eyes fit her bright red hair.

"I want you to teach me how to use weapon," she said then.

He gazed on her, startled, for the second time.

"You've protected me a lot," she said quietly. "Someday, I want to protect Father Nightroad as well."

As the wrens chirping happily and soaring to the sky, Abel smiled in kindness, and nodded.

"Surely I will teach you, Esther."

-00-

"No, Father, no, you can't idiotically twinge the wire into the leaves, and the petals—NO, don't do anything with the petals, just twist the stem, okay? Twist the stem throughout the wire. Oh, Father, we're doing this for almost three hours…."

"Sowwy, sowwy," he almost cried in horror, the ruins of petals coloring his hands. "I can't do this!" With Abel messed up the flowers and wires thousand times, Esther decided to place her request in the middle of the lesson. "Fine," she sighed. "We'll forget it for a while, now it's your turn to teach me."

"Really?!" Abel's face changed drastically, filled with great excitement instead of depression. "Very good idea so far. Now, I've prepared some practice for you."

She'd expected marvelous targets made of huge stones or woods, but what she saw were only cute containers made of papier-mâché which hung on the branches faraway. What made it worse was their deer and doe-forms.

"What is that, Father?" she asked flatly.

"Piñata, filled with thousand candies," Abel answered happily, as if he had done a grandeur job. "For practicing. Watch it carefully," he reached his gun and pointed it to the piñatas without any hesitation. In the long distance he succeeded shooting ten piñatas only for seconds. Colourful candies and chocolates burst everywhere as they were broken.

"Great…," Esther exclaimed, then grinned in frustration seeing Abel marched on the chocolate and ate them greedily. "Dear Heaven!" he shouted. "I've never ate so many chocolates in my life!"

"How did you get those chocolate, by the way, Father?"

"Stealing from the church's pantry—"

"Father!"

"Now's your turn," said Abel hurriedly, before Esther exploded.

Still glaring at him, she carefully held the gun and tried to point it to the piñata. Unexpectedly it felt so heavy that she almost dropped it.

"Here," Abel stood behind her, encircling his hands around her, then clasping both her hands and the gun.

She felt her cheeks blushing.

Her height only touched Abel's chest, made her delightfully comfortable, moreover as his soft hair touching her face.

"You pull the trigger, and—"

BANG!

The nervous and the blushing thing made Esther unconsciously pulled the trigger before she was allowed to. It hit the branch instead of the piñata.

"It's alright," Abel smiled encouragingly, releasing his grasp from her, made her both relieved and cheerless at once. "Try it once more."

She tried and tried, but no matter how hard she struggled, her bullets would always slip away.

"Owh," she dropped her knees on the lea, panting. "I can't do this…!"

"Yes, yes, you can," he held her shoulders. "I think we have to take a break for a while?"

"Oh right," her eyes immediately shone. "Let's continue the wreath-making!"

"Oh no," he grumbled.

"Yes!"

"Nooo."

And so the day went with Abel continuously failed making the floral wreath, and Esther constantly failed shooting.

"It is the stem that you have to twist throughout the wire, not the petals…"

"You have to fix your eyes to the piñata first, Esther…"

"Oh no, Father, this is the thirtieth wire you've broken…"

"Practice with one hand, do it calmly so you can shoot right at the target…"

"Hold it softly, very softly so you won't tear it…."

…

For Abel, this was more exhausting than fighting a thousand vampires.

"How am I supposed to hold it?" he sighed in desperation, his hands full of powders of what it used to be flowers and leaves. Meanwhile the sun began to set, the sky turned to be the mix of orange and purple. "I've touched it as softly as I've could."

"Not enough. Softer, Father. Touch it just like you—" she suddenly stopped. Her cheeks blushed once more.

"Just like what?" asked Abel with wide eyes, waiting for the world's greatest conclusion. "What, what, what? Tell me rightaway."

Esther bowed.

"Just like when you stroked my hair and wiped my tears," she said.

…

Afterwards what was heard inside the lea was only the sound of the breeze.

Acknowledging her impudence, Esther turned her sight away, her visage was cherry-red.

"Well, it's only an example, of course," she said haughtily. "Because you're so lame, Father, there's no other comparison I can give. Surely, you don't have to take it seriously—after all I just want to end this lesson because it seemed futile, and we must go back to the church and ask for the nun's apologize because the chocolates and candies in the pantry—" She stopped her babbling at once, for she suddenly felt a soft palm touching her hair.

She looked up. Abel's eyes, which were originally warm, gazed on her with even more kindness and love.

But some seconds later he suddenly bowed and took his hand away from her, began struggling with the garland again.

"Miss Esther…," he murmured. "If only you told me earlier…."

It was her turn to gaze on him. She noticed that the movement of his hands became much softer, twisting and gathering and securing. She smiled blissfully, startled on how her pumpkin-headed yet lovable mentor could give her so much tranquility.

"Aaaaargh!" a shout from Abel. Esther blinked.

"Esther," he looked at Esther, his eyes almost jumped from its places. "I did it! I did it! Look at this! A beautiful floral wreath!" he exclaimed as he showed the wreath right before Esther.

It wasn't a masterpiece, but for Esther—considering how Abel bungled for uncountable time—it was more than enough. She laughed, yelling "Well done, Father!" cheerfully, and frozen as Abel hugged her tight. "At last!" he exclaimed once more.

Esther finally managed to hug him in return, smiling. And without her knowing, Abel smiled warmly as well. "Thank you, Esther…," he said quietly before placing the floral wreath on her hair.

The lesson hadn't ended yet because Esther had to continue the thing with the piñata. With Abel's floral wreath still encircling her hair, she stood up, pointing the gun to the papier-mache-deer with all of her might.

"Right, you've got the good focus," said Abel. "Just imagine the piñata as an enemy who wanted to destroy me."

"Fa…father!" she embarrassed again. "Stop it. You want to copy my line?"

"Ah…ahahaha," he shrank. "It's only an example, you know…because Miss Esther was failed all the time, there had to be some comparison, and of course, the sun is setting and the night will fall, surely we don't want this lesson to last forever and you don't have to take my line seriously—"

BANG!

Esther shot.

And so the piñata was broken, finally.

…

"Fa…Father…," she whispered, didn't believe in what she had done. "I…"

Abel nodded. "You did it."

She looked at Abel, and he startled on how the unexpected achievement caused her eyes to glisten in tears. With the blissfulness that exactly the same as hers, Abel watched her marched on the broken piñata, and took a relief breath as she reached for the candies and sent them to flying surround her, producing colourful rainfall that showering her.

It was a calm moment, indeed. And in the tranquility, for the hundredth times Abel reciting certain prayer in his heart.

_Dear Almighty God, _he whispered_, because I won't always able to protect her, please protect her for always…_

He smiled, and she laughed. Warmer than before….

_For her happiness, her smile, her braveness… _

…_and my love towards her._

**-End-**


End file.
